Law professor Howard Friedman's church-state blog Religion Clause notes a recent finding of anti-Catholic discimination that was also reported in the Washington Post.
A recent decision held that Father Henry Heffernan S.J., a chaplain at the NIH's Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, was descriminated against by his superior, Methodist minister O. Ray Fitzgerald. Heffernan had been suspended for actions such as ministering to Catholic patients during his days off and refusing to take off-site chaplaincy courses, later given to other chaplains on-site, which were part of a continuing education requirement that Fitzgerald said were an effort to get rid of Heffernan. Fitzgerald was also reported as saying negative things about priests and that he would never hire another Roman Catholic priest. A Jewish chaplain was also fired after testifying in Heffernan's defense.
This looks to me like a clear attempt to put an uppity Roman Catholic priest in his place for refusing to accept a multi-faith concept of chaplaincy that acts as if all faiths are fungible.
And where is Bill Donahue and the Catholic League in all of this? There is nothing on the Catholic League website. Meanwhile, Google reports no hits when searching for "Bill Donahue" in conjuction with "Henry Heffernan," while the only hits for Heffernan in conjunction with the Catholic League yield blogs or religious websites which mention the two in separate posts or articles.
This incident makes two things abundantly clear: 1) There is an obvious need for a Catholic civil rights organization that acts as a watchdog against anti-Catholic discriminiation and 2) the Catholic League under Bill Donahue is not fulfilling this function, following the whims of a leader seeking attention and glory. (3:18 PM)
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